Christmas gift bags tutorial

I must confess, I've been known to wrap christmas presents in newspaper, reused fabric or a plain old plastic bag. Despite being a crafty person, it's just not really my forte, especially when it's done the day before gift giving...

Gretchen from Junk Mail Gems really places it up a notch with these wonderful gift bags made from recycled junk mail (No junk mail at home? Try your work place recycle bin):

You can view her tutorial here

Keeping Chickens

I attended a meeting of the Food Gardeners Alliance the other day, which was very interesting, raising many issues such as the new water restrictions in Victoria, developing governmental policy and some hints and tips. One of the attendees then delivered a talk on keeping Chickens in your back yard, something that requires less space than you may think, so here's a few hints and tips...

• Firstly Investigate and double check your local council's policy on keeping animals, there's no point getting everything in place to then find you've done something illegal and having to get rid of all your hard work.
• Chickens will eat scraps of food, in fact pretty much anything you feed them, such as newspaper and other bits of non-toxic rubbish.
  
• As with most other species in the animal kingdom, what goes in, comes out at the other end and Chicken manure is extremely good for the garden.
  
• It's probably not a good idea to keep Roosters, especially in smaller properties, they're noisy, aggressive and don't give you any eggs!
  
• Check the closeness of coups to neighbouring properties and also check with your neighbors before going ahead with keeping chickens, again there's no point embarking on an endeavour and then being forced to stop due to a neighbourly complaint.
• Keep the chickens, coup and their surrounding area clean and pests under control with normal and cheap powders and tablets from your vet. If a chicken is very ill or dies, take it to a vet straight away do discover the cause and to prevent spreading.
  
• Keep the coup secure to save the chickens from foxes, mice and rats. Don't cut back on costs by using low gauge netting, wire or locks. Keeping the coup clean and free of excess food will help keep away rodents.
• Chickens food consumption and egg production depends on many things including season, light, temperature and what you feed them.
  
• Aside from pellets, they need greens and vegetables. Silver beet is great for this, feeding fresh vegetables means more yellow yolks and protein filled eggs.
  
• Where do you get your chickens from : From farms, $15-30 per chicken on point of laying, or somewhat past it for $1.50, but these chickens will have a lower egg production
• A Chicken's Good laying time is between 2 and 15 years.
• To stop Chickens flying, trim the edges of their feathers, this puts them off balance and stops them flying.
  
• There's no real minimum for space, but the larger space and run the better.
• You will need at least 2, chickens are social animals.

Interested in finding out more, take a look at www.bookachook.com

Christmas shortbread!

I recently had to come up with a cheap gift (under $5 per person) for a large group of international students. I was reluctant to purchase some cheap, imported tacky Australiana as suggested by my colleagues, and decided to make shortbread:



Shortbread recipe: ( I doubled this recipe)

Ingredients:
225g plain flour
Pinch of salt
115g rice flour
115g castor sugar
225 g butter

Directions:
- Sieve flour, rice flour and sugar into a bolw.
- Rub in butter and knead until a smooth paste forms
- Turn onto a floured board and make desired shape of biscuits. Prick biscuits with a fork
- Place on greased baking tray and cook in slow oven for 45 - 60mins, until pale brown.

Costing:
McKenzie's Rice Flour Gluten Free 375g $1.38
Caster Sugar500g $0.97
Plain Flour 1kg $1.04
Butter 500g $2.61
Tinsel $1.48
Brown Paper $2.61
__________________________________
TOTAL: $10.09

Bargain!!! Of course, I could've used organic materials which would have been greener....


Wrapped and waiting: In front of the tree waiting for Santa:

Save water in your property : Grey Water

Here's the second installment of a few tips on how to save water in your rental property, adapted from a Yarra Water leaflet, but picking out the highlights relating to renters...

This time, the best ways to utilise greywater.

• Greywater is waste water from showers, baths, spas, hand basins, washing machines, dishwashers and basically water used by another process that's left over, which is generally most of it!
• Buckets are the most basic and easiest method of collecting gray water :
• Either a bucket in the shower
• A bucket in the sink when washing vegetables
• Scooping out water from the hand basin
• Waste water from washing machines can also be collected into a bucket, or if you use a simple long pipe or diversion system it can be sent straight onto the lawn.

There are however, some considerations when using greywater...

• Don't use water from the kitchen sink, it can contain fats and left over cleaning agents, unless of course you are sure the water is fine.
• Apply grey water directly to the base of plants, it can help reduce the survival rate of microbes.
• Always wash your hands after watering with grey water
• Use grey water within 24 hours of collection
• Don't use grey water on sickly looking plants
• Unfortunately you can't really use grey water on vegetables
• Try using grey water friendly detergents and cleaning agents to get the most garden friendly water you possibly can
• Don't apply more grey water than needed, i.e. after rain.

We're aware that not every one in rented property has a garden and we've concocted a few ideas of other things to do with grey water, but we haven't had the chance to test them yet though, so watch this space...!

www.epa.vic.gov.au
www.ourwater.vic.gov.au